The Decline of European Christianity

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The Decline of European Christianity

Europe has been for a long time considered as the Christianity hub, and European missionaries and believers have introduced people from all other continents to the faith. At first, catholic faith represented the Christianity belief until the split in the sixteenth century. Christianity then developed under two umbrellas that have now split into many other denominations, but professing the Christianity faith. However, a decline of European Christianity has been seen over the last couple of centuries. Starting from the seventeenth century, many Europeans have ceased associating themselves with Christ, with extreme vulgarity being experienced among several of its followers.

One of the reasons for the decline of Christianity among the European countries is the split of the church that occurred around the 16th century. Before then, Catholicism was the dominant religion, but protests over the leadership and doctrines led to the formation of the Protestants, with individuals like Martin Luther spearheading the reformation process. During this time, many believers could not question the authenticity or the correctness of the teachings. They had been made to believe everything that was delivered by the priests and church leaders.

During the reformation process, people were made aware of the controversies in the church as well as the inconsistencies in the teachings of Christianity faith. With the different teachings emerging, individuals started having independent interpretations and thoughts regarding the Christianity faith. From this time forward, doubts and assumptions started to emerge among the believers and within a span of several years, the strict adherence to Christianity started to fade....

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...st number of followers. The staunch Christians have reduced and the few remaining are either partial or affiliates in terms of family or baptismal names.

Works Cited

Arthura, James, “Religious and spiritual markers in community involvement,” British Journal of Religious Education 33, no. 3 (2011): 299-312.

Kalu, Ogbu and Alaine M. Low. Interpreting Contemporary Christianity: Global Processes and Local Identities. Cambridge, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2008.

McGrath, Alister E. The Future Of Christianity. Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell, 2002.

McLeod, Hugh and Werner Ustorf. The decline of Christendom in Western Europe, 1750-2000. New York, Cambridge University Press, 2003.

Spohn, Willfried, “Europeanization, Religion and Collective Identities in an Enlarging Europe A Multiple Modernities Perspective,” European Journal of Social Theory 12, no. 3 (2009): 358-374.

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